Peterborough health officials urge public to get both flu, COVID-19 shots

Health officials serving the Peterborough area are urging residents to get updated on COVID-19 vaccinations and flu shots.

Beginning Monday, updated vaccines were made available at Ontario pharmacies, primary health providers and at health units.

Dr. Thomas Piggott, medical officer of health for Peterborough Public Health, says the latest COVID-19 vaccine helps provide better protection against the latest Omicron XBB.1.5 variant.

“Now’s the time to roll up your sleeves and come on forward for your vaccine,” he said.

The vaccine is now eligible for anyone over the age of six months and can be administered alongside a flu shot.

However, some pharmacies in Peterborough, including the Brookdale Plaza IDA in the city’s north end, are already reporting shortages of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Higher-risk populations were initially prioritized in the provincial rollout. He says there has been a “few calls” regarding pediatric doses.

“We actually ran out of all of our shots in the first day that we were doing them,” said pharmacy manager Evan Millbury. “Within five hours, we had gone through the full 110 doses that we actually had.”

Piggott acknowledges health officials are facing a challenge to vaccination hesitation or simply fatigue. The health unit — which serves Peterborough, Peterborough County, Hiawatha First Nation and Curve Lake First Nation — has reported that only eight per cent of eligible residents within the health unit’s jurisdiction have received three or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the last six months.

The health unit also reports approximately 82 per cent of residents have received the first two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

However, Piggott says boosters are vital to fight against the virus. Health officials recommend getting a COVID-19 vaccine six months after your last dose or infection.

“We know that immunity does wane with time,” he said. “Which is why some people have reported getting multiple infections and for some people, that has been more mild, less severe.”

Ève Dubé, an anthropologist at Laval University in Quebec City, says there is a discrepancy when it comes to vaccine hesitation.

“We kind of see a split in the population,” Dube said. “There’s a group that’s really keen and really highly motivated to get their vaccination for flu and for COVID-19, but there’s another group that’s more and more tired and less willing to be vaccinated.”

Millbury says he has seen “steady interest” in COVID-19 vaccinations at his pharmacy over the past three years.

“I find at this location where we’ve been doing it for so long that it’s the same people coming in for their shots,” he said.

The health unit on Oct. 11 reported the first confirmed influenza case of the season in the region. Piggott expects the risk of COVID-19 and respiratory viruses to increase as winter approaches.

As of last week, the Peterborough region’s risk index for COVID-19 was at moderate. The health has reported 154 COVID-19 deaths in its jurisdiction since the pandemic was declared.

“We’re out of what the who called the emergency of COVID, but people are still getting sick and people are still getting hospitalized and dying,” he said. “We know that risks of post-COVID condition or longer-term impacts of COVID are still important and relevant.”

— with files from Germain Ma/Global News Peterborough

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